Walmart, Kmart, Sears and Toys R Us will kick off the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season by starting their Black Friday blockbuster deals at 8 p.m. Thanksgiving -- the earliest start to Black Friday ever.

Target will follow at 9 p.m.

Then a long list of retailers, which grew larger this year, will begin the Black Friday madness at midnight: BestBuy, Kohl's, Macy's, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Gap and others.

Cielo Vista and Sunland Park will open their doors at midnight Thanksgiving night to accommodate a long list of stores with midnight openings. The Outlet Shoppes at El Paso will open earlier, at 10 p.m. Thanksgiving.

REPORTER

Vic Kolenc

Several retailers will extend their Black Friday deals by offering different blockbusters at various hours through the night and early morning.

Michael Niemira, chief economist for the International Council of Shopping Centers, or ICSC, said others may follow the trend of opening Thanksgiving evening if it proves to be successful.

Black Friday madness, no matter what time it starts, is probably a good marketing ploy, he said.

The problem, he said, is it jams sales into a short period, which may extend the historical early December lull in the holiday shopping season, he said.

"It's a successful strategy for a day. The jury is out if it's effective for the season," Niemira said.

Bledsoe, 27, who said he's worked in retailing for nine years, launched his "Say No to Black Thursday" Facebook page, facebook.com/#!/noblackthursday) Nov. 1, and he's urging people to sign an electronic petition on Change.org to encourage retailers to stop the Thanksgiving madness.

"I know it won't stop it this year. The ads are already printed," said Bledsoe, of Gate City, Va. "I want to try to grow this community so maybe next year, retailers will see it's not that good to open early, and go back to midnight or 5 a.m., openings."

Bledsoe's petition had more than 1,000 signatures late last week. A California woman, who said she is a Target employee, had more than 200,000 signatures on a Change.org petition urging Target not to open Thanksgiving night.

A recent survey of 2,231 adults by CouponCabin.com, an online coupon provider, found 31 percent of the respondents said Black Friday sales start too early now compared with past years.

Target and Walmart Facebook pages have many people commenting negatively on the early openings, but they also have thousands of likes for the early openings.

Walmart issued a statement saying the giant retailer moved its Black Friday start up two hours from last year's 10 p.m. start to strike a balance between being competitive and meeting customer demand.

"In talking to our customers, we know that the (ad) circulars come out after the leftovers are put away, and millions of our customers are looking to kick-start their shopping, once again, on Thanksgiving night," the statement said.

Walmart and Kmart stores also continue a years-old policy of being open Thanksgiving Day. However, Kmart will be creative with its hours this year, with stores open from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thanksgiving, then reopening from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m., and then reopening again at 5 a.m. on Black Friday. Several other national retailers, including Old Navy and Big Lots!, will also open during the day on Thanksgiving.

The Outlet Shoppes at El Paso was one of the first in this area to open Thanksgiving night -- and it's been a hit.

The 97-store mall will open at 10 p.m. Thanksgiving for the fourth consecutive year. It opened at midnight for two years, but when people started lining up early, the decision was made to open at 10 p.m., Gina Slechta, vice president of marketing for Chicago-based Horizon Group Properties, the West Side mall's operator, said in an email.

Outlet malls across the country went to midnight openings on Thanksgiving night several years ago when they discovered many customers were young night owls who preferred staying out late rather than getting up for the 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. openings that were a Black Friday staple, Slechta said.

The mall makes it a fun experience by having live entertainment and artificial snowmaking, she added.

The outlet mall isn't worried about the big discount chains opening even earlier than the mall, Slechta said.

"We experienced stores opening before us last year, and we found that customers picked up the door buster deals at discounters and then promptly left to shop the outlet stores," she said.

The outlet mall last year drew about 60,000 shoppers from 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving until 10 p.m. on Black Friday, she reported.

Anna's Linens, which has five El Paso stores, had planned to open at midnight Thanksgiving.

But when it saw the list of retailers opening at midnight or earlier, company officials decided it made more sense to move its opening to 10 p.m., the company reported.

JC Penney, which has seen sales fall since unveiling its no coupons, no sales strategy last February, will also do Black Friday differently than its competitors. It plans to open at 6 a.m. Black Friday to let "bargain hunters rest," before picking up its blockbusters, it proclaimed in a press release. It also will offer a different twist by having store employees staffing mobile checkout devices to allow customers using credit cards to check out more quickly, the retailer reported.

Nordstrom, the upscale Seattle-based retailer, which has no El Paso stores but plans to put a Nordstrom Rack discount store in El Paso next year, has signs at its stores and posted on its Facebook page touting its years-long policy of closing on Thanksgiving and not having Christmas decorations up until Black Friday.

"Why? We just like the idea of celebrating one holiday at a time," its signs state.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com, 546-6421. Follow him on Twitter @vickolenc